On January 5, 1477, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, died on a frozen battlefield outside Nancy. His death sparked one of the most intense constitutional crises of the fifteenth century.

Charles left behind his nineteen-year-old daughter Mary, an empty treasury, a destroyed army, and a state on the brink of collapse. Within weeks, French forces began invading Burgundian lands as internal revolts erupted across the Low Countries. To secure recognition as her father's successor, Mary had no choice but to make revolutionary concessions to her people.

On February 11, 1477—after only one week of negotiations—Mary signed the Great Privilege. This document systematically dismantled her father's centralizing reforms, established the Estates-General's right to approve taxation and declarations of war, and even guaranteed subjects the right to resist if the ruler violated their privileges.

But the Great Privilege couldn't save Mary's reign. Her marriage to Maximilian of Habsburg offered military protection but also introduced a new problem: an Austrian prince raised in an imperial court who understood little of urban political culture. When Mary died in a riding accident in 1482—just five years after inheriting—she left behind a four-year-old son and a constitutional settlement her husband was determined to overturn.

This episode examines how Charles the Bold's aggressive centralization led to the conditions for a constitutional revolution, why the Great Privilege became a foundational document for federal governance in the Low Countries, and how Mary's brief reign set the stage for a decade of revolt that would influence the region's political culture for centuries.

Resources: 

For the Common Good: State Power and Urban Revolts in the Reign of Mary of Burgundy by Jelle Haemers

The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule by Wim Blockmans and Walter Prevenier

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Intro Music: Hayden Symphony #39
Outro Music: Vivaldi Concerto for Mandolin and Strings in D